Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, Foreign Affairs Minister of Bangladesh, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.
Prime Minister Modi congratulated Dr. Abdul Momen on his appointment as the Foreign Minister and appreciated his gesture of selecting India as the destination for his first foreign visit.
Dr. Abdul Momen briefed the Prime Minister on recent developments in the bilateral relationship.
The Prime Minister said that relations between the two nations have been on an upward trajectory in the last few years. He reaffirmed India’s commitment to work with Bangladesh to build on this momentum during the new term in office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Earlier, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, was on a 3-day visit to Bangladesh from September 24, 2018.
During his 3-day visit, Suresh Prabhu held discussions on trade relations with his counterpart, Tofail Ahmed. He also met business leaders in Dhaka. Bilateral trade between the two neighbours has grown steadily over the last decade.
In the five years for the period between FY 2012-13 and FY 2016-17, total trade between the two countries has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 11.45%. Bilateral trade stood at USD 7.52 billion in 2016-17. India’s exports to Bangladesh for the financial year 2016-17 stood at USD 6.82 billion and imports from Bangladesh during FY 2016-17 stood at USD 0.7 billion. For 2017-18 (April-December), India’s exports to Bangladesh was USD 5862.73 million and import figures stood at USD 463.34 million.
India’s neighbor also surpassed USA and UK in May 2016 in the number of tourists who chose India as the tourism destination.
The Top 15 source nations from which tourists have come to India during May 2016 were Bangladesh (20.48%) followed by USA (15.68%), UK (7.56%), Malaysia (3.74%) and others.
India shares warm relations with Sheikh Hasina government as well.
